


Not going anywhere.

by OnceUponADream_Cal



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Family, Jason Todd is Robin, Other, dick is kind of a dick, learning to get along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 03:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10563177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceUponADream_Cal/pseuds/OnceUponADream_Cal
Summary: Batman goes out of town and leaves Nightwing and Robin (Jason) to look after Gotham.Dick and Jason learn to get along.





	1. The First Night.

     Jason was robin. Sometimes it was still hard for him to believe. Sometimes he’d wake up in the middle of the night feeling like he needed to run, like the past year living in Wayne manor, and working alongside Batman, had been a massive joke and he needed to get out before things went sour. It had just been _too_ perfect. Sure, every now and then he’d screw up and Bruce would lecture him, but Alfred was never far behind with a plate of his favorite food. (and, if it had been a particularly bad lecture, stories of some of Bruce’s greatest screw ups.)

     It was a weekend, which meant no homework, and most importantly, he could stay out as robin later. So as soon as he got home from school he bounced down to the batcave, after grabbing one of Alfred’s sandwiches of course. He had expected Bruce to be down there, where else would he be on a Friday afternoon? But he hadn’t expected Nightwing to be there, arguing with Batman.

    Jason’s happy mood evaporated. He didn’t like Nightwing, and Nightwing sure as hell didn’t like him. Whenever he showed up, all he did was argue with Bruce, steal all of Alfred’s attention (and his cookies) and remind Jason that he’ll never be as good of a robin as the original. He never said any of that out loud, but Jason knew, he’d never be as acrobatic and charming as the great Dick Grayson. The only good thing about him, was that his name fit his personality.

            Bruce saw Jason first and waved him over, cutting Dick off mid-sentence. “Jason. How as school.”

            “Fine.” he pointedly ignored Dick’s presence. “what’s going on?”

            Dick didn’t take the hint. “Hello Jason.”

            “Hey Dick-Face.”

            Dick threw his hands up and turned to Bruce. “See? I told you! This can never work.”

            “What?” Jason looked to Bruce for an answer, but he had his Batman face on and Jason couldn’t read him.

            “It can, and it will Dick.” He said.

            “I’m telling you it can’t. Why couldn’t you ask Babs or someone? Why me?”

            “Batgirl is busy. And its only for a couple of days.”

      “No. I won’t do it. You’re not the boss of me anymore.” He crossed his arms and sounded incredibly childish for someone who was supposed to be an adult.

            Bruce narrowed his eyes and stared him 18-year-old son down. “Dick…”

            Dick held out much longer than Jason would have, but he gave in eventually. “Fine. I’ll be here tomorrow.” He spat out.

            “Tonight.” Bruce corrected. “try and make it for dinner. Alfred worries about you not eating well enough on your own.”

            Dick mumbled something about a dirty trick but nodded. “fine. I’ll run back home, pack a bag, and be here by 6.”

            Jason, irritated about being ignored and left out of the conversation, interrupted before Dick could leave. “is one of you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to guess?”

            Dick snorted and grabbed his motorcycle helmet. “I just agreed to be your babysitter for the weekend kiddo.”

            “ _What?_ ” he started at dick, (who shot him finger guns and sped out of the cave.) and then at Bruce. “ _What?_ ”

            Bruce sighed. “I’m going to be off world, on league business, for a couple days.”

            “and you thought I needed a babysitter? I’m 13! And Alfred is here.” Jason felt hurt. Did Bruce really trust him so little?

            “no. he’s not babysitting you.  If anything, Alfred is babysitting both of you. But no. all I want is the two of you to keep an eye on Oswald Cobblepot.”

            “Penguin? Why? What’s he done?”

            “nothing.”

            “nothing? Then why do you want him watched?”

            “He’s been too quiet recently. He might be up to something.”

            “Or, crazy idea here, he’s settled into being a creepy club owner, and isn’t doing the whole crazy villain thing anymore.” Bruce just raised an eyebrow. And Jason sighed. “yeah…okay. I’ll do it. But I won’t be happy about it.”

            “That’s all I ask.”

            “That I suffer? gezz Bruce. Sadistic much?”

            He rolled his eyes and headed for the training area. “I don’t leave for another couple hours, do you want to train?”

            “Hell yeah.” Jason darted over. “I’m going to kick your ass old man.”

            Bruce smirked. “Keep dreaming brat.”

* * *

 

            Jason, predictably, got his ass handed to him. he had only managed to land a couple hits on Bruce, and he was pretty sure Bruce had let at least half of them land, for the sake of Jason’s fragile teenage pride. Still, by the time dinner rolled around Jason was feeling pretty good, until the doorbell rang and he foolishly agreed to answer it.

            “Hey Jason.” Dick stood there with a black and blue stripped duffle bag. (it matched his Nightwing costume. He was quite possibly the biggest loser Jason had ever met.)

            “Hey Dick-face.” Jason seriously thought about closing the door, but Alfred would be furious if he did that. so, he stepped out of the way so he could come inside.

            “I’m going to ditch my stuff in my old room.” He tilted his head toward the stair case.

            “I don’t care.” And he didn’t.

            Dick walked away “this is going to be the longest god-damn weekend of my life.” He muttered.

            Jason shut the door and went back to the kitchen. He liked hanging out there, especially when Alfred was cooking. He loved watching the man cook, and he was always happy to teach Jason when he asked. Maybe, if the whole caped vigilante didn’t work out, he’d like to be a chef.

            “Was that Master Richard at the door?”

            “Nah, some homeless druggie. I let him in, pointed him towards the really valuable stuff.” He hopped on a stool and spun around.

            “Oh dear. I hope he doesn’t track mud in. I just cleaned the floors.” He deadpanned. “would you mind slicing the bread?

            “Sure thing Al.”

* * *

 

     Dinner started at exactly 6:30, as it always did. Bruce sat at the head, as he always did, and Jason and Dick sat at either side of him. Bruce engaged Jason is a brief conversation about school. How he was doing in classes, (great. Not the very top of his class, but pretty damn close.) his friends, (a couple school friends he would forget about when he graduated.) and what he was learning about (The American Civil war.). Then he tried to engage Dick in the conversation. How was College going so far? (Fine.), how were things with the Teen Titans (fine) and his girlfriend (none of your business). It was a tense dinner, but they were all civil to each other.

            Bruce left just before desert, leaving the two boys alone to eat their chocolate mousse in silence. Jason couldn’t wait to suit up and get out of the manor, awkward family dinner always made him antsy and made the manor, and occasionally the cave, seem way to small. He needed to get out and breath the cool city air. Thankfully, Dick decided they should each take their own Cycles instead of a bat mobile to stake out the iceberg lounge.

            “The thing is basically an armored tank. I don’t know how he can be stealthy in that thing. Cycles allow for better maneuverability.” Dick had said before they left. Jason agrees, not out loud of course, he preferred cycles.

            So, there they were. Sitting on a rooftop near the Iceberg Lounge watching Oswald Copplepot drink fancy cocktails, chat up scumbags, and generally look sleazy. But nothing illegal (although Jason was pretty sure most of those drinks were illegal, and basically everyone was packing.) after a couple hours, they were both pretty bored. Dick, as it turns out, had trouble sitting still for long periods of time. It didn’t take long for him to go from jiggling his foot to doing handstands. Jason, on the other hand, had spent his entire childhood being quiet and still.

            “This isn’t going anywhere.” Dick said. “what do you say we call it a night, do a quick patrol, and head back to the manor. if we get there before Alfie goes to bed he might make us hot coco.”

            The hot chocolate was tempting, very tempting, Alfred made the bed hot chocolate in the world. It could even make Bruce almost smile after a bad Justice league meeting (meaning either Hal Jordon or Guy Gardener was there. Or, god forbid, both.). But just as he was about the give in, he saw one of Penguin’s favorite Henchwomen sneak out the back. “Nightwing, look at that.”

            “what?”

            “where do you think, she’d going?”

            Dick shrugged. “maybe she needed to get away from Cobblepot, or run some errands. His people have been going in and out all night.”

            “yeah but…” Jason felt like she was doing something big. He could feel it in his gut.

            “but…you have a hunch.” Dick finished for him then shrugged. “then follow it.”

            “really?” Jason was surprised. Batman never let him follow hunches alone, especially not ones as baseless as a woman leaving a club.

            “Yeah. Go ahead and follow her. Just keep your comms open and don’t do anything stupid.” Dick turned his attention back to the club. “I’ll keep an eye on Penguin.”

            “I…” Jason almost, _almost_ , felt like he could like Dick. “I’ll do that then.”

            “Quit staring at me and follow her before you lose her.”

* * *

 

            Jason followed the Henchwoman to a shipping dock. Nothing suspicious, it was the same dock Cobblepot used to get his fancy alcohol, legally obtained birds, and what everything else he needed for his club. Batman kept a close eye on everything that went in and out of there. Jason slumped. He’d really thought he’d found something.

            Dick must have heard him sigh over the comms. “find anything?”

            “No. just Cobblepot’s docks. The legal ones.”

            “ah well. Happens sometimes. Nothing’s happened here either. Ready to turn in?”

            Jason thought. There didn’t seem to be anything here, but that feeling in his gut hadn’t gone away. “I want to stay here a while longer. Just in case.”

            “Alright. Suit yourself. I’m going to set up surveillance cameras and head back.”

            Jason nodded. He didn’t think anything would happen at the lounge anyway. Cobblepot had to know it was constantly being watched. “okay. I’ll keep the Comms open.” Dick agreed and he went back to watching the woman.

            She hung around, talked to a few dock hands, and wandered around Cobblepot’s warehouse with a clip board. She looked over crates and scribbled on a paper. She was taking inventory. Jason sighed, but refused to give. After what seemed like hours of looking at crated and boxes, she approached the last 4 boxes. But she didn’t write anything on the clip board. She looked the boxes over, satisfied, she pulled a couple dock hands aside, pointed to the 4 crates, handed them a piece of paper and what looked like an envelope of money. They nodded and immediately loaded the crates into a truck and drove away, east, the opposite direction of the lounge.

            Jason wished he had the foresight to bring a camera with him. it was suspicious. The Penguin was up to something. And Jason, not Dick, had been the one to catch it. He fist pumped the air and raced home.

* * *

 

            “I knew he was up to something! I just knew it!” He practically yelled after he finished explaining what he saw to Dick, who spun around in Batman’s computer chair like a child.

            “alright hold up.” He held up a hand. “you saw one of Cobblepot’s employee’s go to a shipping ware house, that Cobblepot owns legally, saw her take inventory, and have a couple crate moved. Jason, nothing about that is suspicious. It happens almost every day.”

            “she didn’t write down the last couple boxes! And she handed the guys money, and _then_ they moved them!”

            “so, she bribed some men to move some boxes quicker. It’s illegal, but it happens all the time. Hell, even Wayne Industries has had to bribe truck drivers to get shipments when they need them.”

            “you don’t believe me.” Jason said incredously. “Are you taking _The Penguin’s_ side?”

            “what? No of course not.” Dick ran a hand through his hair. “I’m just thinking about this logically, like a judge would. You don’t have any proof that he’s plotting something.”

            “but…” he bit his lip and thought. “The crates…they went east. Away from the Lounge.”

            Dick sighed and pulled up a map on the computer. “Cobblepot has another building in that direction. Where he keeps his birds. That’s probably what was in the box, and why the woman didn’t mark it down on the paper. Because it wasn’t for the lounge. It was personal.”

            Jason was furious, and hurt. He didn’t know why he cared about what Dick thought. But it stung that he didn’t believe him. “What is wrong with you? Why won’t you listen to me?” he yelled. He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t control it.

            “Because you have no evidence Jason!” Dick stood up and yelled back at him. “what do you want to do? Go beat the shit out of some innocent dock hands who took a bribe so they could afford to feed their families’ this month? Tell commissioner Gordon so he can get laughed out of a court house? What do you even think was in the crates Jason?”

            Jason stopped and thought. “Drugs?”

            “are you asking me or telling me?” Dick’s voice was cold.

            “ _Fuck you!_ ” Jason yelled at him and ran from the batcave, past a concerned Alfred, who must have woken up some time since he got back, and straight to his room. Not even caring that he’d broken the ‘no capes in the house.’ Rule. What was Dick’s problem? Why was he so against him? what did Jason ever do to him?


	2. The second night

            Jason spent the next morning avoiding Dick. It wasn’t hard, Dick slept past noon and spent the rest of the day in working on his computer and talking on the phone with his teammates. Jason managed to sneak past him, into the Batcave, and researched The Penguin’s activities.

            Alfred eventually found him. “There you are. I’d begun to worry you’d snuck off again.”

            “Nope. Still here.” He spun away from the computer to give Alfred all his attention.

            “have you been down here all afternoon?”

            “uh…” he glanced at a clock. 5:45pm. Damn. He had. “no?”

            Alfred sighed. “God help us all, you’re almost as bad as Bruce.”

            Jason gasped and clutched his chest, like he had been mortally offended. “as bad as Bruce?  You wound me Al. I didn’t think it was possible.”

            Alfred rolled his eyes, something he never did around Bruce, and shooed him out of the chair. “go upstairs until dinner is ready. Do something a normal teenage boy would do on a weekend.”

            “You mean normal boys don’t spend their weekends cyber stalking costumed weirdos?”

            “oh Hush. Or I just might change my mind about making chicken tenders for dinner.”

            Jason shot up. “I’m going, I’m going.” He loved chicken fingers. But Alfred never made them, Bruce didn’t eat them. He let Alfred chase him out of the Batcave and into the living room. He settled on the couch and flipped through the channels, eventually settling on a M*A*S*H marathon.

            Halfway through the episode, Dick walked in. Jason tried to look away, but it was too late. They had made eye contact.

            “so… M*A*S*H huh? My mom use to love this show. She had all the episodes on VHS.” He leaned over the back of the couch to watch the show.

            Jason turned the TV off and turned to face him. He wasn’t going to pretend what happened last night didn’t happen. He hated when adults did that. when they yelled at him and then pretended it never happened. “What’s your problem with me?”

            Dick blinked, surprised by his sudden forwardness. “I don’t have a problem with you.” But he didn’t at Jason when he said it.

            “Bullshit. You hate me. why? What did I ever do to you?”

            He looked away. “is this because I wouldn’t let you go after Cobblepot? You needed to get over that. hunches don’t always work out.”

            “It nots _just_ about that.” he snapped. God, Dick was infuriating. “you’ve treated me like I was personally out to get you since the day we met. _What is your problem?_ ”

            “Maybe it’s because you’re a brat? You call me Dick-face and do nothing but insult me, but you want me to treat you like you’re some kind of angel?” he snorted. “come on kid. It doesn’t work like that.”

“I call you dick-face because you’re a dick-face. You can’t put this on me. I treat you how you treat me.”

Dick threw his hands up. “alright Fine. you want to know my problem? My problem, is that I took a break from robin for not a month, and I come back, and some brainless brat is strutting around in _my_ costume, living in _my_ house, and Bruce, the guy I thought was my _fucking father_ let it happen without blinking an eye. Maybe I wasn’t happy with being replaced by any random kid who fit Bruce’s profile of angsty dark hair orphan.” He jabbed a finger in Jason’s face. “That’s my fucking problem kid.”

Jason clenched his jaw and watched Dick storm out of the room. He threw a pillow across the room, knocking over a vase full of flowers, and totally didn’t tear up a bit. It wasn’t _fair_. He hadn’t asked for any of this. He hadn’t asked Bruce to adopt him, he hadn’t asked to become robin (okay, maybe he did.). he’d thought the last robin had retired or something. He didn’t know they guy would want it back. He threw another pillow at the broken vase. Stupid Dick Grayson. Didn’t he know how hard it was for Jason to fill his shoes? That he had to train twice as hard to _maybe_ pull off something dick had been able to do when he was 10? That jumping off buildings and flitting around bad guys like some kind of snarky butterfly didn’t come as naturally to him? Jason worked damn hard to become robin, harder than Dick had ever worked, and he still couldn’t get out of his shadow. If anyone _deserved_ to be robin, it was Jason. He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. It was wet. Damn.

            Alfred, no doubt alerted by the yelling and breaking glass was at his side with a handkerchief in an instant. “does this have anything to do with why Richard stormed out of the house and said he’d patrol alone tonight?”

            Jason sniffed and wiped his face with the handkerchief. “He hates me. it’s not my fault Bruce gave me robin. I worked hard for this. I deserve this.”

            Alfred sat next to him on the couch and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. “of course, you do. You’ve done so much as robin, and you’ve worked so hard, and I am so proud of you. Bruce is too. Richard will come around.”

            “No, he won’t. He hates me.” he said bitterly.

            “He doesn’t hate you. He’s just angry. And doesn’t know how to deal with it. It is unfair of him to take it out on you.”

            “I thought he was supposed to be an adult.” Jason had stopped crying.

            Alfred laughed softly. “Richard has always…struggled with growing up. Bruce thought it was so important for him to be a child, that he failed to teach him how to be an adult. Now come on, it looks like it’s just the two of us for dinner and I can’t possibly eat all these chicken tenders alone.” He stood up and offered Jason a hand. “and I still haven’t decided what to make for desert.”

            He took Alfred’s hand and followed him to the kitchen. “can we have pudding?”

            “pudding? Yes, I suppose we could.”

            “Thanks Al.”

            They ate in the kitchen (something Alfred never allowed, so Jason guessed he must have looked pretty pathetic earlier.). He offered to help wash the dishes, but was shooed out of the kitchen and told to go read his book. But he’d left it downstairs.

He entered to Batcave, fully intending to grab his book and head back upstairs. But his files on The Penguin were still open. And he noticed something that he’d missed before. A smaller warehouse, not far from the place where penguin kept his birds, that a couple of his Hench people had been frequenting lately. Apparently GCPD was suspicious but lacked any real evidence for a case. He pulled up the address, put on his suit and left to check it out. He’d be back before Alfred could miss him.

* * *

 

            Jason crawled in the ware house through a window near the roof and gently landed on a walkway. This was definitely the place. The henchwoman from last night was there. Along with a couple people Jason recognized as Penguin’s employees, and several he didn’t recognize. He settled in a place where he could see most of the warehouse, and pulled out a camera (He remembered to bring one. Take that Dick.) and snapped pictures of as many people as he could. There were crates of all shapes and sizes, and something on the end covered in a giant tarp. It didn’t look like a weapon, so he wasn’t concerned.

            One of the men walked over to the woman. “where is your boss? He was supposed to be here an hour ago! We need to get this stuff out of the city”

“patience. We must move very quietly and very slowly. If we make even the smallest ripple, the Bat will catch on.” Jason really wished he had brought a recording device. So, he could rub it Dick’s stupid face, then turn it over to the police of course. “the Penguin like to make an entrance. He can be… a bit dramatic.”

“yeah. The top hat and monocle gave that away. not to mention the birds. What is with all the birds? No one could possibly like birds that much. Are you sure he isn’t one of the crazy ones?"

            She patted him on the shoulder. “yes, I’m sure. Let’s go over the inventory once more before he arrives.” She lead him away and they began to speak to quietly for him to hear.

            Jason spent the next couple minutes taking pictures of everyone and everything, an eavesdropping on any conversation he could hear. (“so, I finally tried caviar the other night.” “yeah? How was it?” “pretty gross actually. I don’t why rich people like it so much.” “rich people are fucking weird man.”) when suddenly a hand came down on his shoulder. He spun around aiming his elbow towards his attacker’s face.

            Nightwing caught his arm easily. “nice try.” He whispered.

            “What are you doing here?” Jason whispered back, checking to make sure no one had noticed them. “you’re going to ruin everything!”

            “You-” he was cut off buy the warehouse doors flying open. He dragged Jason further into the shadows and held a hand up for silence.

            It was The Penguin. As soon as he entered he started barking orders at everyone. pack up all the crates, they were abandoning the place. Jason’s stomach dropped. They couldn’t abandon it, Jason had just found it. He didn’t have enough evidence yet.

            “Abandon it?” the man stood up to The Penguin. “we’re not ready to move it all yet! That’s what we were supposed to meet about!”

            “We don’t have a chose Clyde. The place is no longer safe. The Police are on their way.”

            “What? But you said they could do anything. I thought we were being careful. _You said this would work._ ” Clyde got in The Penguin’s face.

            He used his umbrella to push the man out of his personal space “Apparently not careful enough.” He gestured to his men and they all raised their guns.

            Clyde took a cautious step back. “what? Are you blaming me? I didn’t tip off the police!”

            “Relax Clyde. No one is blaming you. No. apparently, someone saw a little bird enter and called the police.” He looked to the rafters, where Jason and Dick were hiding, pointed his gun at them, and opened fire.

            “Shit.” Dick grabbed Jason’s arm and dragged him out of the hiding spot half a second before Penguin’s men opened fire on it. He pushed Jason in front of him. “Don’t stop running. Zig Zag!”

            “We’re on a straight beam! I can’t Zig zag!” he yelled. A bullet hit the rafter below his foot. Shit. He screwed up. And not only was he going to die, but he was going to drag Nightwing down with him. shit.

            “Then Jump!” Dick tackled him, pushing them both off the rafter and on to the nearest pile of crates, that was, unfortunately at least a 10-foot drop. Jason landed relatively easily, using what Batman had taught him, and didn’t waste any time jumping down to the next box. Dick was right behind him, pushing him to not stop.

            They jumped from crate pile to crate pile until they rounded a corner and came face to face with 4 heavily armed men. Dick grabbed his arm and pulled him back so he was in front of Jason. “now boys, don’t you think all those weapons might be a little excessive? We’re just two teenage boys after all.” He slowly started walking backwards, Jason followed his lead.

            “it not excessive if the teenage boys are Bat-brats.” Two more men came from the other side. They were trapped.

            “Bat-brats? I didn’t know there was a term for us. Who came up with it? None of you idiots of course. I’ll bet it was either Harley or Joker.” He reached for something behind his back, but one of the men noticed it and jabbed Jason in the side with the muzzle of his gun.

            “Hands up.” The man growled, not even bothered by the glare Jason was giving him. “don’t try anything. I’ve nothing against killin’ nosy brats.”

            Jason was thinking. What would Batman do to get out of this? A smoke bomb and a super awesome ninja moves that would take down all 5 men in an instant. But Jason didn’t know any super awesome ninja moves, and Batman had taken away his smoke bombs after he set them all off in the house of his mother ex-drug dealer. He thought about just making a break for it when Nightwing put his hands up.

            “Fine. we give.”

            “We _what_?” Jason stared at him.

            “We give.” He repeated. “unless you can figure a way out of this that doesn’t end with one of us dying.” Jason glared, but didn’t say anything. He slowly put his hands up.

            One of the men put his gun down and pulled out some rope. “at least one of them has a brain. Fortunately for you, we’re in a bit of a rush. But we can’t have you following us.”

            Jason let them tie his hands behind his back, he could get out of it easily, and let them herd him across the warehouse to a giant bird cage on the other end. So that’s what was under the tarp. He should have known. The man pushed them inside, and locked the cage.

            The Penguin watched the whole thing. “that won’t do. They’ll get out right away.” He picked up an unusual looking gun and pointed it as the lock. Some kind of foam came pouring out of it and coated the lock and most of the door. Jason jumped as far back from it as he could. “do you like it? Not very good in a fight though. Now, as much as I’d love to stay and catch up with you boys, my men can only delay the police for so long.” He waved and left the warehouse, The woman right behind him.

            Jason was forced to watch as The Penguin’s men made quick work of most of the crates. The ones in the huge piles were left alone. Maybe they were too heavy to move, or not relevant to Penguin’s latest plan. As soon as they all left he shrugged out of the ropes and inspected the door. Whatever had been sprayed on the door had hardened quickly. He took out a Batarang and tried to chip it away.

            “It won’t work.” Dick said behind him. he had also gotten the ropes off, but had sat down on the ground and watched him. “when that stuff hardens, it’s impossible to break unless you have super strength.”

            Jason kept hitting it. “How do you know that?” the batarang broke. “Shit.”

            “because I encountered it last month with the Titans. Only Wonder girl could break it.” He stretched his arm over his head and winced. “The police will be here soon. They can get us out.”

            Jason gave up on the door. And sat as far away from Dick as he could. “Fine.”

            Dick skootched closer. “Jay I wanted-”

            “No real names in the field.”

            He sighed. “okay. _Robin._ I just wanted to apologize for blowing up at you earlier today.” Jason didn’t look at him but let him continue. “and how I’ve treated you this past year. I have a lot of problems with Br-Batman, and it wasn’t fair of me to take it out on you.”

            “A yelled at you, didn’t he?”

            Dick laughed. “kind of. But he was right. I’ve been pretty shitty to you, and you don’t deserve that. I really am sorry. I’ll…”

            “try to be less of a Dick-Face?” Jason suggested.

            Dick laughed again. “yeah.”

            Jason could hear police sirens approaching quickly, apparently, Dick did too, because he stood up and watched the doors. “I’ll try to not be a brat.” He said quietly, so he couldn’t be heard over the sirens. He stood up and waited by Dick’s side.

            The doors burst open and officers is S.W.A.T gear swarmed in guns blazing. Jason took a step behind Dick, just in case one of them got a little trigger happy. He still didn’t trust the police. Dick, on the other hand, leaned against the bars and waved to them. “Hi guys! You can put those down, they already cleared out.” He beamed at the nearest officer. “How are you today?”

            “Uh.” The officer’s voice was muffled beneath the helmet. “okay…I guess.”

            “That’s good. Is the Commissioner outside?”

            “y-yeah.”

            “Awesome. Could you ask him to bring in something to get us out of this?”

            The officer nodded and relayed the message over their radio. The Warehouse was clear, But Nightwing and Robin were trapped in a Giant metal cage. Jason could hear him swearing on the other end of the radio. The S.W.A.T officers back up to look around the warehouse, and give them some privacy while Gordon yelled at them.

            Commissioner Gordon entered and made a beeline for them, closely followed by Detective Montoya, who carried a camera, and a couple of officers with a wicked looking saw and a blanket.

            “Commissioner! It’s been too long. You should drop by Blüdhaven sometime. I’m sure the police department would appreciate if you shared your wisdom with them.”

            “sure. I’ll send them a ‘dealing with wise cracking vigilantes’ pamphlet.”

            “I’ve missed this. No one over there get me. do you think you could convince them to build a ‘Nightwing signal’?”

            “God no. now tell me what happened.”

            Jason stepped out from behind Dick. “Aren’t you going to let us out?”

            Gordon shook his head. “not until you tell me what happened.”

            Jason opened his mouth to say something, but Dick cut in before he could. “we suspected Cobblepot was up to something, so we followed him here. They knew you were coming. They found us, pointed a few guns at us and locked us in here.”

            Detective Montoya raised an eyebrow. “and you just let them? You didn’t fight?”

            Dick shook his head. “we couldn’t both made it.” He looked at Gordon. “I’ll stop by later tonight with some evidence Robin managed to get, and explain it better.” Gordon nodded to the officers.

            “Wait. Just a second.” Montoya pointed the camera at them. “Say cheese.”

            Dick grabbed Jason around the shoulders and smiled for the camera. “Cheese!”

            Montoya smiled at them and waved for the officers to go ahead. “where’s Batman anyway?”

            “Doing more important stuff.” Dick grabbed the blanket one of the officers offered him and dragged Jason to the farthest end of the cage. “c’mon Robin. Stay behind the blanket.” He wrapped the blanket around them and ducked his head while they cut through the bars.

            “why did you let her take a picture?” Jason said in his ear.

            “You have no idea how many times she’s rescued me from stupid traps over the years.” He said barely audible over the sound of the saw. “letting her take a picture every now and then in harmless. I trust her.”

            “oh.”

* * *

 

It took them almost an hour to get out of the warehouse. Mostly because Dick kept dragging him into impromptu photoshoots and talking to every officer he recognized. (he made Montoya promise to give him a copy of the pictures, so now there was proof of Jason’s fuck up. Great.) when they got back to the Batcave, he copied all the pictures that Jason had taken onto a disk for the commissioner, and left to drop it off. Jason stayed behind and tried to track the penguin.

It took him until 2am to find them. One of the truck drivers had stopped for gas and Jason could follow him through traffic cameras to an abandoned building on the other side of town. It didn’t look like they were going anywhere anytime soon, so he decided it could wait until tomorrow. Bruce would be back by then anyway.


End file.
